THE Llangollen branch of Friends of the Earth have held an event at a supermarket in the town highlighting the responsible disposal of plastics.

A group of local residents invited Aldi shoppers to join them in saying no thank you to single use plastic packaging. Whether it’s littering our countryside or one of the estimated eight million pieces going into the oceans every day, plastic waste is widely considered to be a massive problem.

The Plastic Free Llangollen campaign held the event to highlight the risks posed by plastic packaging, which is used for such a short period of time, but can take hundreds of years to decompose. While many shoppers are increasingly aware of the issue, avoiding plastic packaging is not always easy.

Eleri Hayhurst, who is a member of the group explained the concept of the event that was held at the store on Saturday, September 7.

She said: "It’s very simple – everyone is doing their shopping as normal, but on the way out they’re leaving any items of plastic packaging they don’t want with us.

"Aldi have agreed to take all the plastic at the end of the day, so that it can be recycled where possible. Lots of people have been taking part and we’ve collected enough to fill a trolley in just two hours, which shows how much excess packaging there is.

"The purpose of a mass unwrap is to highlight the issue of plastic waste and also show supermarkets that many customers do not want a lot of unnecessary packaging.

"We’d like to be able to do our shopping without feeling guilty about creating lots of waste we neither want or need."

Llangollen has already taken some big steps forward with local people and businesses getting behind the Plastic Free Llangollen campaign. However, the new group who came together following a meeting in the town to discuss the climate emergency, say there’s still plenty more to do.

One of those taking part was Harri, aged 5 who said: "I’m worried about the whales and the sharks, because I love animals and I want to help them and the planet.

"I’ve cleaned plastic rubbish from beaches, and I want the shops to stop using so plastic too."